CONSOLIDATED FUND (APPROPRIATION) BILL (Hansard, 28 May 1970)

§ LORD BESWICK
My Lords, before I move the First Reading of this Bill I think it is appropriate that something should be said. I am sorry that procedures here have gone differently from those upon which we had agreed. It was hoped that the Clerk from the other place would be at the Bar of the House in order to hear the displeasure which is felt in this place at what can only be considered as the incompetence of another place. I know that there is this feeling and I think it is right that it should be expressed. In this day and age, when we are trying to modernise almost every institution in the country, one would have thought it would be possible to contrive a system of communications under which the Bill came over here rather more quickly than has been the occasion this evening. I now beg to move that this Bill be read a first time.

§ LORD CARRINGTON
My Lords, may I just support what the noble Lord, Lord Beswick, has said? I think the happenings of the last forty minutes have been absolutely disgraceful. There can be no reason why the House should be treated like this, and I very much hope that there will be some way in which whoever is responsible in another place 1230 is made aware of the feelings of this House. I think that this is the first time in the 25 years or so that I have sat in this House that I have ever seen your Lordships' House sitting here in session with nothing whatever to do, and waiting on the competence of another place to send up a Bill which they had passed forty minutes before. I hope that the feelings of this House, which are very strong, will be made known to those responsible.

§ LORD BYERS
My Lords, I should like to add my support to what the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, has just said. It seems to me absolutely absurd that we should be subjected to treatment of this sort. May I suggest that, rather than accept assurances from the other place, we should in future be told what arrangements are made, so that we can scrutinise them and make quite certain they are workable.

§ LORD SHACKLETON
My Lords, since I was not waiting here I have not yet quite reached the pitch of fury which a number of noble Lords have felt, but I have immediately sensed the great and intense irritation. It is the case that this is not the first time, in my experience, that there have been delays which were very much to the inconvenience of your Lordships, not to mention the anxiety that it is bound to cause on the Government Front Bench who are trying to satisfy the House, conscious that people are being kept here. Therefore I am naturally very sympathetic to everything that has been said. It has been suggested that we should buy a pair of roller skates which we should make available to somebody in another place so that he could proceed rather faster to your Lordships' House.
I think that the remarks that have been made by noble Lords opposite, and by my noble friend, Lord Beswick—whom I regard as normally a calm man, but who has reached a pitch of fury apparently equalled only by that of the noble Lords opposite—will not go unnoticed. I am quite certain that the Lord President, the Leader in another place, who in my experience has always been anxious to cooperate, will take note. Perhaps I should add that this is not the only misfortune. There were troubles over the Administration of Justice Bill because there was not 1231 a proper Marshalled List of Amendments made in another place. That had nothing to do with the officials here, who serve us so well. Although some confusion is inevitable, confusion has been added unto us through no fault of our own at all. I hope that that is satisfactory. Does the noble Lord want even stronger expressions?

§ LORD CARRINGTON
My Lords, I thought the noble Lord the Leader of the House rather left it that somebody might read what has been said. I want rather more than that; I want somebody to make sure that what we have said is made known to another place, not just left to the off-chance that they might read Hansard. I hope that the noble Lord the Leader of the House will make sure that they do know it.

§ LORD SHACKLETON
My Lords, I did not intend to give that impression. I was trying to ensure the maximum publicity for what was said in your Lordships' House, and I do not doubt that this will be done. I take it that the wish of the House is that I, as Leader—at least "pro tem": I will not say how long the "pro tern" will be—should in fact represent in the right quarters the strong feelings of this House on what has happened.

§ LORD BYERS
My Lords, does not the noble Lord think we might register this protest more effectively if we voted against this Bill and threw it out?

§ LORD SHACKLETON
I must point out that it would be an unusual thing to do on First Reading.

§ LORD BESWICK
My Lords, I wonder whether I can now get your Lordships to agree that this Bill be now read a second time.

§ LORD BESWICK
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a third time.

§ LORD BESWICK
My Lords, in moving that the Bill do now pass, I apologise again for the inconvenience to which your Lordships were put, and I take this opportunity of wishing good fortune in our different ways in the days that lie ahead.

§ LORD SHACKLETON
My Lords, may I just express my appreciation at having had the highly enjoyable, if sometimes worrying, experience of being Leader of your Lordships' House during the past two or three years. I would echo what my noble friend Lord Beswick has said. I should very much like to thank noble Lords in all parts of the House for the example of co-operation that we show here—sometimes under difficulties, and sometimes under difficulties inflicted by other people. Whatever may happen in the Election, at least we shall all be meeting on one side or other of the House in the near future.

§ LORD CARRINGTON
My Lords, I should like to join both noble Lords who have spoken and to echo what the noble Lord said in his closing sentences. Whatever may happen, we shall all be here next time and I have no doubt will be saying much the same things as we have said in the last six years.